Police are searching in Calgary and communities west of the city for evidence now that the disappearance of a Calgary mother and her child is being investigated as a potential double homicide.

A suspect was taken into custody at 11 a.m. Thursday in the southeast community of Cranston.

Calgary Police Service Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta said police executed a search warrant in Cranston and seized a vehicle. A crime scene unit was present at the location Thursday and cordoned off the area surrounding the townhouse in Mosaic Cranston.

Police say they have been unable to find any evidence confirming that 25-year-old Jasmine Lovett or her 22-month-old daughter Aliyah Sanderson are alive.

Jasmine Lovett and daughter Aliyah Sanderson.

Children’s toys were seen at the front of the house and in the garage, where the police seized a vehicle. They will continue their search inside the home over the next few days.

A neighbour living across the street said the usually peaceful community has seen a heavy police presence since Wednesday.

“In the past couple of days I’ve seen police vehicles come and go,” said Tolga Tuzun. “I didn’t really know what was going on until this morning,” when he learned about the missing mother and daughter.

Tuzun moved to the community about a month and a half ago and said he didn’t know the residents.

Police investigate a condo in Cranston in southeast Calgary on Thursday.Al Charest/Postmedia

Lovett and Aliyah were last seen in Cranston on April 16, and police said the last activity on Lovett’s financial accounts was an online purchase made two days later.

The suspect is known to police and is known to the victims, but Schiavetta would not comment on their relationship. He added Aliyah’s biological father is not a suspect and has been co-operating with investigators.

Schiavetta said Lovett’s family became worried when she failed to show up for a planned family dinner on Tuesday. He said dozens of officers worked to find “footprints of life” of the mother and daughter but none have been found.

Cellphone tower pings from electronic devices have led police to search for signs of the mother and daughter in the communities of Bragg Creek and Priddis west of Calgary.

Teams of search and rescue volunteers and police officers scoured a stretch of Highway 762 near Bragg Creek on Thursday afternoon. At each roadside turnoff, people in bright yellow jackets scanned the area for evidence of the missing pair.

A Calgary police officer on the scene of a search near the Fullerton Loop Hiking Trail on Highway 66 west of Bragg Creek on Friday.Al Charest/Postmedia

There were at least four search and rescue units deployed along the secluded highway. Calgary Police Service cadaver dogs and members on horseback were also combing the area.

The service is asking residents of those areas to examine their properties for anything unusual and report any suspicious activity observed between April 16 and April 23.

“Anything on their property, they can call the Calgary police or the RCMP,” Schiavetta said. “Sometimes it’s the smallest piece of evidence that could assist the investigation.”

“A lot of the investigators that are currently working this file also worked that one, and obviously any investigation involving a child is extremely difficult,” he said. “A lot of the members within the homicide unit have children themselves.”

Search continues in the rural area between Bragg Creek and Priddis on Thursday.Darren Makowichuk /
DARREN MAKOWICHUK/Postmedia

A Calgary police officer accompanies a Search and Rescue Alberta member near the Fullerton Loop Hiking Trail on Highway 66 west of Bragg Creek on Friday.

If ruled homicides, the deaths would be Calgary’s sixth and seventh of 2019.

Meanwhile, court records show that last September, Lovett turned to the courts for protection from the girl’s father, seeking a no-contact order against him.

In a Sept. 14 hearing before family court Judge Steve Lipton, Lovett said the girl’s father became aggressive toward her when she said he came home drunk and high on drugs nine days earlier.

“He was under the influence of heavy drugs and alcohol,” Lovett told Lipton, according to a transcript of the hearing placed on the court file.

“His behaviour was very bizarre, aggressive. He wanted me to give him some money to get some more drugs and alcohol and I said ‘no,’ and he kicked open the main door.”

Lovett said the girl’s father looked for her purse and she told him to wait downstairs while she went upstairs to retrieve some money, which was actually a ruse.

“I locked my bedroom door and called 911 and he kicked open our bedroom door and got on top of me trying to get the phone. At that point I was really scared he was going to harm me and my child.”

She said police eventually showed up, but the man had already left.

“There was nothing they could do at that point because he didn’t physically harm us,” Lovett said.

Lipton granted the emergency protection order, but 13 days later Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Scott Brooker revoked it after hearing from both Lovett and the girl’s father, an indication the parties had resolved their differences.

Anyone with information on the disappearance of Jasmine Lovett and Aliyah Sanderson is asked to call the police non-emergency line at 403-266-1234 or the Homicide Tip Line at 403-428-8877. You can also contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.calgarycrimestoppers.org.

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